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Our purpose was to compare the effect of a periodized preparation consisting of power endurance training and high-intensity power training on the contractile properties of the quadriceps muscle and functional performances in well trained male sprinters (n = 7). After 4 weeks of high-intensity power training, 60-m sprint running time improved by an average of 1.83% (SD = 0.96; p less than 0.05). This improvement was inversely related to an increase in maximal voluntary contraction torque (r = -0.89, p less than 0.05) and poorly correlated with changes in the contractile kinetics of the quadriceps muscle (r range from 0.36 to -0.46). These findings suggest that sprint performance is poorly predicted by muscle intrinsic properties and that a neural adaptation appears to explain most of the observed functional adaptations. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that intraindividual variability in isokinetic knee extension/flexion relates positively to muscle fatigue, i.e., the less the muscle fatigue during exercise, the greater is the variability of torque fluctuation. Twelve healthy males performed 100 continuous knee extensions and flexions with maximal intensity at 180°/s. The main findings were: 1) the knee extension muscle exhibited more fatigue and less intraindividual variability than the knee flexion muscles; 2) intraindividual variability in knee extension (SD for torque fluctuation in 100 repetitions) relates closely to fatigue. We conclude that intraindividual variability in isokinetic knee-extension torque relates inversely to muscle fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]